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planting by the sea

This week Stirling Natural Environment Coastcare (SNEC) started planting in the dunes of at the southern end of Marmion Marine Park. I went to Hamersley Beach yesterday morning to help. In between planting, I took (too many) photos and unbeknownst to me, my phone dropped out of my pocket. Did I bury it in a hole when planting or drop it in a bucket of water?? I spent 15 minutes running around the dunes looking for my phone, with two other volunteers calling my number in hopes I would hear it ringing. And there it was, sitting on a dune plant, protected from the sand and not even wet from the watering hose.

There was more excitement when a sea lion popped up its head close to shore and entertained the volunteers for about 15 minutes. One of the volunteers thought it was too small for a sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) but we don’t have seals visiting our shores, so it might have been a juvenile sea lion. Sadly I was too busy digging holes and missed him, but I did catch a skink sunning on the bricks of the fence protecting the dunes. Skink wasn’t happy with me snapping photos, but I didn’t take up too much of his busy basking time.

With all the rain in the past month the sand we planted in was still damp in places, but every plant was watered in with wetting agent added.

the water cart was used to water in all the plants

Hopefully the high rainfall of May will continue into winter and the plants will have a good start to their beach life. Other Coastcare groups have started planting and if you have the time, contact your local council to find out which group is in your area and volunteer to help with dune rehabilitation.